When “The Black Sheep” Is White

2011 marks 10 years since the mixed-race category was added to the U.K.’s annual censes. To commemorate this event, BBC Two has been running a series of programmes documenting the mixed-race experience both in Britain and around the world.

One of familys profiled in the series are the Kellys. While the Kellys are mixed race (the father, Errol, is black and the mother, Alyson, is white), what makes them truly extraordinary is that in 1993, Alyson gave birth to twin boys — one black and one white.

How is this possible? According to population geneticist Dr. Jim Wilson, Errol’s Jamaican heritage holds the answer. In the days of slavery, white men raping black women were common practice and, as a result, most blacks from outside of Africa have a mix of African and European DNA. In the case of the Kellys, Errol passed his African DNA to his son James (resulting in James’ black skin) but passed his European DNA to his son Daniel (resulting in Daniel’s white skin).

Not surprisingly, being twins with different skin colours was difficult for James and Daniel growing up. What is surprising, however, is that it was Daniel – the white twin – that endured the bulk of the racist abuse from students at the all-white school the twins attended. His mum explains that situation like this: “Those kids couldn’t stand the fact that, as they saw it, this white kid was actually black. It was as though they wanted to punish him for daring to call himself white.”

According to research by Yzerbyt, Leyens, and Bellour (1995), we are quick to reject ingroup members that are not in line with what is required for group membership. Because the identity of the group is put at stake by misidentifying an ingroup member, we tend to be especially careful when allowing new members in. If misidentification does occur, there is a “Black Sheep Effect” in which the “bad” ingroup member is chastised more than a similarly “bad’” outgroup member. In other words, if an ingroup member and an outgroup member both exhibit an undesirable behaviour, we are likely to be much harder on the ingroup member.

Akin to this theory, the white students at the twins’ school punished Daniel because they had identified him as white (and hence an ingroup member) when he was, in actuality, half black. Such behaviour from these white students illustrates just how important race is in how we identify both others and ourselves. While the U.K and the rest of the world have come quite far in how we perceive mixed race people, it is clear that we still have a long way to go.

This is a remarkable story in itself, but it’s the counter-intuitive racism that raised an eyebrow. The “black sheep effect” is something I see regularly in families going through disagreements. Actions that would not seem so derisive are chastised by family members precisely because they are family members. On the other hand, having different standards for different social groups does seem very common.
David

The ways we experience bias and prejudice are hard to predict, and sometimes explanations are harder to understand. It seems that just being different in any way makes others treat us poorly. Interesting article. Thanks.